BUNRAKU REMIX
In His Eyes
BUNRAKU
In His Eyes
Yoshi's first firm memories are his mother's eyes, soft and dark with worry and fatigue. In her arms, his newly born sister lies, tiny face scrunched up. And he feels at home.
He turns – and he sees them – the dark, inscrutable eyes of his father. Measuring him and finding him wanting. Even then, the young boy understands that somehow he has failed. Later, Yoshi wonders if his father cast the fate of his sister so easily.
It matters not. A muted challenge – a dying man's wish – has been laid down and he took it. Why did he take it? He wonders this again and again. Perhaps it was the eyes – the dimmed, hopeless eyes of his father – a great man who had done great things for his village and had reaped nothing but a soft son and a weak daughter. So I took the burden – I will retrieve the gold medallion... the purpose which held me to Jin will guide my footsteps to the end.
How odd then, that on the way to the end, he meets new eyes. Brown eyes, lighter than his family, set in an inscrutable face. Promising death and violence. And yet... As Yoshi raised his fist, ready to attack, ready to meet the unspoken challenge, something flickered momentarily. In silence, the tall stranger walked up to the bar, ignoring the regular bar scum and the obvious signs of a fight. The look was gone, but Yoshi remembered it – sharp and searing like a hot blade against the skin.
Unnoticed, the riff-raff filtered out. Yoshi, sharply aware of the bartender's absence, flicked dark eyes quickly up at the newcomer. No sign of it. No sign of an unspoken promise. No sign of a hidden desire.
He turned away and hoped that his face (so lively, his mother said, he is full of feeling, you can't make the boy less than what he is – passion is a fire which can drive him but not for evil, not for such violence) had not betrayed him. Had not betrayed acquiescence – had not begged for the hard fuck the stranger promised.
When he turned, he found he could smile again.
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